A Change of Heart
by CeceTheAuthor
Summary: Alya finds herself falling in love with Marinette and visits her as Rena Rouge. One night, she makes a mistake.


Alya traced her hand along the cold chain of the necklace that was tucked away underneath her shirt. She still couldn't quite believe that Ladybug had actually allowed her to keep the fox miraculous indefinitely. She could save the world all the time now, something she'd always dreamed of doing ever since she picked up her first comic book.

Her kwami, Trixx, was safely hidden within her pocket. He had been quite an enjoyable companion to have so far, and Alya couldn't wait to feel the thrill of transforming into Rena Rouge once again. Every time she did it she could feel a boost of energy pool up inside her, one that meant she was raring to go and could face anything that came her way.

Alya pushed open the door to her classroom and sighed when she saw that her best friend was late once again. Was she ever not going to sleep through her alarm?

Although sleeping in may not be entirely Marinette's fault. It's partially Alya's too.

She felt a familiar feeling well up inside of her as she thought about her recent late night talks with Marinette. Her friend's — hopefully girlfriend's one day — hair had shone in the moonlight, and her eyes had sparkled as soon as Alya arrived on her balcony as Rena Rouge.

As a civilian, Alya thought that she hid her underlying feelings for her best friend quite well. She found it hard to cover up her crush on the stunning girl, but she didn't want her to know yet as Alya worried that, even though Marinette was one of the sweetest people she'd ever met, she may end up taking it the wrong way. She wasn't even sure if Marinette was into girls.

Marinette was in love with Adrien anyway. How could she, a simple civilian without a high status, in over a literal supermodel, one that Marinette was head over heels for?

Alya turned on her phone, scrolling through all of the recent posts on the Ladyblog as she waited for Marinette to arrive. She clicked on the most recent one, an article she had written with a picture of herself as Rena Rouge attached to it.

It wasn't any old picture of her as Rena, though. It was one of her saving Marinette from danger.

Looking back on it, Alya slightly regrets including the photo there. What if someone could see that she had a crush on Marinette from her facial expression in the photo? Alya couldn't help the fact that she looked so lovestruck whenever she was around.

Alya sighed and placed her phone away as the girl of her dreams finally walked into the room, a cheerful grin appearing on Marinette's face as she bounced towards Alya.

"I have great news!" She exclaimed and glanced around to check that nobody was listening before leaning towards Alya, so she could whisper in her ear.

Alya immediately felt her face heat up from the extremely close proximity and really hoped that Marinette didn't notice. It'd be rather hard to explain without blurting out 'I know we're best friends but I'm falling in love with you.'

"Adrien helped me up when I fell over," Marinette whispered and Alya felt her heart break a little. "He held my hand for a few seconds too."

"That's great." Alya replied with a grimace as Marinette pulled away, the cute grin still adorning her face.

Alya bit her lip in an effort to stop the tears that were building up in her eyes. She couldn't break down like this. She had to be strong.

Later that same day, Alya uttered the magic words and, in a quick flash of sparkles and bright orange light, she transformed into her superhero persona, Rena Rouge.

Moments later, she jumped out of her window and leapt from rooftop to rooftop, the evening breeze flowing through her long hair and making her feel a sense of freedom that hardly anyone else would ever get the chance to experience.

She loved being able to be Rena Rouge. It felt like a short break from her normal life, one where she was fully able to express how she truly felt about Marinette without having the fear that she may be shot down. It also gave her the chance to re-introduce herself to Marinette and potentially learn something new about her that the girl may have not told her about before.

She stopped once she was able to smell the delicious scent of bakery goods and glanced down to see Marinette already waiting for her, a plate of chocolate chip cookies in her hands.

Rena Rouge jumped down onto the balcony, landing with a loud thump that scared Marinette and caused her to clumsily slip over.

Rena instinctively reached out and caught her in her arms but a few of the cookies fell from the plate and onto the floor.

"I'm sorry," Rena Rouge apologised, holding Marinette's hand as she stood up properly in case she slipped again. "I didn't mean to scare you. I just got a bit excited when I smelt the cookies." She explained, sheepishly rubbing the back of her neck.

Marinette smiled, causing Rena's heartbeat to quicken at the adorable expression. It wasn't fair on poor Rena's heart for her to be so cute!

"It's okay, Rena Rouge. Would you like a cookie?" Marinette asked as she gestured towards the plate of cookies, nervously laughing when she noticed that all but one had fallen to the floor.

"I-I guess we have to share..." Rena trailed off, heat rising to her cheeks when she realised the implications of it. Sharing food seemed like a very coupley thing to do.

Not realising the internal battle Rena Rouge was having, Marinette split the cookie in half (although it wasn't perfectly in half) and handed a piece to her, a sweet smile displayed on her face that made Rena's heart feel as if it were about to burst out of her chest.

The next time she visited Marinette, things were a bit different. It was raining outside which meant that the two girls had to have their nightly chat inside for the first time.

Rena had felt a little awkward at first but Marinette soon suggested that they could watch films on her laptop for a while. Rena Rouge had instantly agreed with her; she could use a relaxing evening after the day's akuma battle.

"I'll go and fetch the snacks." Marinette cheerily informed her, running down the stairs that led to the main part of the apartment a few moments later.

Looking around the room, Rena noticed that the all too familiar posters were still taped onto the wall. She felt disheartened by it but she knew that she had it in her to at least confess to the girl of her dreams. For now, she just had to hope that the pictures of their mutual friend, Adrien, would soon be taken down and potentially replaced with pictures of her instead.

"I've got croissants! Is that okay?" Marinette asked despite already knowing that they were her absolute favourite. Rena nodded and the two headed up to Marinette's loft bed so that they could watch the films with only the light from the skylight shining down on them.

Rena could have sworn that her heart almost stopped when Marinette leaned her head on her shoulder, she was not expecting that at all.

Hours later, the two girls had already gone through multiple plates of food. They'd cried at the first film they watched and they were laughing their heads off at the current one.

Marinette and Rena Rouge burst into laughter again, their breath becoming shaky as the two clung on to each other for support. Rena turned her head to look at the ravenette and it was only then that she realised just how close they had gotten. Her laughter trailed off as she became enchanted by Marinette's cute giggles.

Subconsciously, she moved her hand so that it was placed on Marinette's cheek as she swooped down and captured her lips in a gentle kiss.

Marinette's eyes widened in surprise. She had her suspicions lately about Alya but she never expected them to end up being true.

After a moment of hesitation, Marinette closed her eyes and returned the kiss. It was only then that Rena realised what she had just done.

She pulled away too see Marinette's lidded eyes and reddening cheeks. She still couldn't believe that she'd accidentally done that. What a way to screw things up forever.

"I'm so sorry!" Rena Rouge shouted as she scrambled to get away. She leapt out onto the balcony through the skylight, making sure that it shut behind her (she didn't want Marinette to get wet from the rain), and leapt away.

When she reached her room, she destransfrormed and flopped onto the bed, a few rogue tears leaking from her eyes as she dwelled on her big mistake.

"It'll all be okay, Alya." Trixx reassured, nuzzling her fluffy face into Alya's cheek in a comforting way.

"I messed up Trixx." Alya replied, her voice shaky and slightly muffled due to her face being buried in her pillow.

"But she you kissed back, didn't she?"

Alya gasped at that and sat up, bringing a hand to her lips as she realised that Trixx was right. Marinette had begun to kiss back, but Alya had made the foolish move of pulling away before she could realise what was truly happening.

Alya could already feel a smile breaking out on her face at the thought that she may actually have a chance with the love of her life. Surely Marinette beginning to kiss her back was a sign that the girl liked her too, right?

'Thank goodness she doesn't know my true identity.' Alya thought, wiping away the last of her tears as she began to daydream about her next encounter with Marinette, a lovesick grin spreading on her face.

Meanwhile, as soon as Rena had rapidly scampered out of her bedroom, Marinette sank down into her mattress, reflecting on what had just happened.

Rena Rouge had just kissed her. Alya had just kissed her.

And she'd begun to kiss her back.

Marinette brought a hand to her lips, a blush adorning her face as she finally realised her true feelings towards her best friend. She'd been slowly falling in love with the girl without even realising it.

"Are you okay?" Tikki questioned after seeing her expression change from confusement to realisation.

"Yeah, Tikki. I just realised something that I wish I'd figured out a while ago." Marinette breathed, still feeling on a high and as if it weren't real. It was going to take her a while to get used to this revelation.

She went to sleep that night dreaming of the short but sweet kiss they shared and what may come from it, the thought of Alya and her superhero counterpart, Rena Rouge, consuming her dreams.

Rena Rouge frowned as she watched one of her crime fighting partners, Ladybug, deal with another victim. For some reason unknown to her, Ladybug had started acting all stuttery and shy around her today.

The battle had started out normally enough. Chat Noir was shouting puns at every opportunity and Ladybug was coming up with a master plan. But as soon as Rena Rouge had arrived, fully energised and raring to go, Ladybug's usual calm and confident demeanor had quickly changed to being shy and unassertive.

It had taken them at least three attempts before they finally executed the plan flawlessly and defeated Hawkmoth's latest victim, a young woman in her mid-twenties who had been wrongfully fired from her job as a social worker.

"Ladybug, are you feeling okay today?" Rena questioned as she reached out to tap Ladybug on the shoulder. The smaller girl flinched at the sudden contact, whirling around a moment later.

"I-I'm fine," She reassured her, but Rena didn't quite believe it. "There's nothing wrong with me. N-nothing at all." She continued, a shrill beeping sound coming from both of their miraculous moments later.

"G-gotta go!" Ladybug hastily blurted out, quickly waving at her before extending the string of her magic yoyo and swinging over the rooftops.

"Well, that was weird." Rena mumbled to herself, shrugging it off a moment later and opting to jump away before she accidentally revealed her identity to the general public. That would be the biggest mistake of her life!

Later that night, a gentle knock echoed in Marinette's room from where Rena Rouge's hand tapped the glass panes of the skylight. She was waved at by the raven haired girl, signalling that she was allowed to make her way inside.

She lifted up the skylight, dropping down onto the bed with a soft thump a moment later, and padded her way across the mattress and down the small stairs.

"I..." Rena began, taking a deep breath to calm down the anxiety building up within her. She could do this! "I'm sorry for last night."

Marinette blushed at the memory of the unexpected kiss, her heart hammering as she remembered that this was also her best friend, Alya.

"It probably made you uncomfortable so I-"

"Why would it have made me uncomfortable?" Marinette blurted, avoiding Rena's gaze.

"But you love Adrien, don't you?" Rena Rouge questioned, confusion evident in the tone of her voice. Marinette shook her head at that, a small smile breaking out on her face.

"Not anymore. Also, I'm not uncomfortable with it even though we're both female because," Marinette began, taking a deep breath so she could prepare herself. She was about to share a secret that nobody else knew after all. "I'm actually pansexual."

Rena smiled at that, she was glad that Marinette trusted her enough to tell her that. She could already feel herself calming down.

"So..." Marinette cleared her throat. "Do you want to have another film night?" She moved closer towards Rena, leaning towards her to whisper into her ear like she had in the classroom a few days ago. "This time the kissing can be intentional."

And, at that, she smirked and winked before walking downstairs, probably to fetch them snacks again.

Rena smiled to herself, glad that things finally seemed to be going well for her and that Marinette had had a change of heart. That accidental kiss hadn't turned out so badly after all.


End file.
